On September 6, the prime and backup crews of manned spacecraft Soyuz МS-06 arrived at Baikonur cosmodrome after successful completion of the integrated examination trainings at Yu.A. Gagarin CTC.

The ISS-53/54 Expedition crew consists of Alexander MISURKIN (spacecraft commander, ROSCOSMOS) and astronauts Mark VANDE HEI and Joseph ACABA (flight engineers, NASA). Their backups are cosmonaut Anton SHKAPLEROV (spacecraft commander, ROSCOSMOS) and NASA astronauts Scott TINGLE and Shannon WALKER (flight engineers, NASA).

The crew commanders reported about their readiness for the final prosessing phase.

The launch of Soyuz MS-06 carrying the crew of the next long-duration tour to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for September 13, 2017 at 00:17 Moscow time from Launch site No.1 (Gagarin’s Launch Pad) of Baikonur cosmodrome.

According to the Russian applied scientific research program 62 experiments are supposed to be performed during the ISS-53/54 Expedition in various areas, namely biology, biotechnology, geophysics, technology and medicine. Sixty of them have been started during the previous increments, two experiments “Physical and chemical processes and materials in space conditions” i.e. “Diffusion flame” and “Electric flame” are new ones.

The expedition objectives are to perform operations with Russian and US logistics vehicles, EVA operations, maintain the station functionality, conduct onboard imagery of the history of events on the ISS Russian Segment (RS) and commemorative activity operations. The planned duration of the flight is 177 days.